This proposal requests partial support for the 2010 Microbial Stress Response Gordon Research Conference to be held July 18-23, 2010 at Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA. This extraordinarily successful biannual conference attracts diverse scientists from the biological and physical sciences with broad interests in the mechanisms that bacteria employ to sense and respond to various forms of stress. The 2010 conference will have a strong representation of stress responses of pathogens as well as stress in the context of ecology and biotechnology. Stress responses associated with antimicrobials, both their mechanisms of action and resistance, will be a major theme. In addition to a session devoted to antibiotic stress and survival, numerous talks in other sessions will cover aspects of antimicrobials and related toxins. Computational and systems-level approaches to stress-responses will also be well represented and integrated throughout various sessions. In addition to the invited speakers, speakers will be selected for short talks from submitted abstracts. This will provide an opportunity for young scientists to present their work. The organizers are also committed to the strong tradition of diversity that has characterized this meeting and will work to include women and members of underrepresented groups as speakers and participants. This meeting will play a strategic role in advancing microbial research by integrating cutting edge, genetic, molecular, and computational approaches to the study of microbial systems and their stress responses. The meeting provides an unparalleled venue to bring together scientists from diverse disciplines with the aim of uncovering the principals governing microbial survival and adaptation in stressful environments. Stress responses are critical for pathogens to colonize hosts, initiate virulence programs, and resist antimicrobial treatments. Thus, the insights and new directions stimulated by this meeting will help the community to develop new methods to fight off pathogens and improve human health. A better understanding of the mechanisms that microbes use to survive and adapt to stress will provide key insights into the means by which pathogens are able to colonize and cause disease in humans, and resist antimicrobial treatments. This will aid in the design of new drugs and therapeutic strategies for combating infection and the spread of disease.